Inheritance - Epilogue
by KittenInAWindow
Summary: 80 years after Eragon and Saphira leave Alagaësia to find a place to train new dragon riders.


**The ending of the Inheritance Series was not satisfying. I wrote this epilogue as a way to get closure for that ending, I hope it helps you too!**

Epilogue

80 years later

Eragon and Saphira sit in the courtyard of their castle. They had finished the compound right before the first dragons and riders came to them. They look the same as they did the day of the great battle in Ilirea when they defeated Galbatorix and freed Alagaësia from his tyrancy. Eragon looks up at the blue, blue sky.

" _What's the matter, little one?"_ Saphira rumbled into his mind.

" _Nothing,"_ he replied scratching her jaw. " _Just thinking of all our friends in Alagaësia."_

Behind them in the courtyard and beyond young dragons and their riders practice fighting techniques and magic. It brought joy to their hearts to see the multicolored dots soaring high above them with representatives of all the races riding atop their backs. This was a sight neither of them thought they would ever see. But along with the joy of it all there was sadness. Sadness that they had to leave all their friends and family behind them. They never got to see Ismira grow up into a beautiful women. They could only ever see her through their scrying and that was never enough. They weren't able to attend Roran, Katrina or Nasuada funerals because they could not leave the young dragon riders to fend for themselves.

Eragon rose his eyes back to the sky where he saw two colorful dots rapidly nearing them. " _Dragons?"_ Eragon thought to Saphira who had risen to her feet.

" _Yes,"_ she thought back. " _Jump on."_

"Be alert!' Eragon called with his voice and mind to the younglings behind him. "We don't yet know if they be friend or foe. Saphira and I will go to meet them. The rest of you, be ready to help if it is an ambush." In his mind Eragon asked of Sapira," _New younglings?"_

Sapira took off with a mighty flap of her enormous wings. " _No, they are too big."_

" _I thought as much, but then who..."_ He trailed off as they neared each other and another mind touched his. It had been so long but not so long that he couldn't remember what her mind felt like. "Arya!" he shouted with elation.

" _Firnen!"_ Saphira called with her mind.

It was only then that Eragon looked to who was flying next to Firnen. "Murtagh!?" Eragon shouted unbelievingly.

"Aye, it is!" he shouted back grinning, though the grin did not reach his eyes which were still filled with grief and sorrow, presumably because of Nasuada's death.

After seven years in isolation in the North, Murtagh and Thorn had returned to the living and Nasuada. Six months later they had had their wedding and Saphira and Eragon had scryed it, wishing they were there in the crowd and clapping as they kissed. They had spend many a happy year together. They had two beautiful children, a boy and a girl. The boy now sat on the throne and the girl was the leader of the dragon riders. She had come many years ago to be trained and Eragon had enjoyed teaching her. She had had all the qualities that he had most loved in his half brother and former leader.

Alagaësia had prospered for almost a century and showed no sign of stopping. The only kink in the perfection was Nasuada's death ten years earlier. The whole of Alagaësia had mourned her. All of the races mourned her loss but no one so much as Murtagh. It destroyed him. He said a farewell to his children and his closest friends and had flown away on Thorn to not be seen again for a year. After that he had been spotted several times saving villages from raids and the like but he never stayed anywhere for long. He was much loved by the people but the few times Eragon had scryed him there was always a layer of grief to everything he did. Despite all these things Eragon could not imagine what either him or Arya was doing there.

"What are all of you doing here?' Eragon asked as soon as they were close enough to to hear each other.

"Let us land and then we will tell you!" Arya shouted over the beat of Firnen's wings.

Once Arya, Firnen, Murtagh and Thorn had landed and been introduced to all the young dragon riders who had bowed respectfully. And after the dragons had left to get food and water and catch up, Eragon, Arya and Murtagh were finally able to talk. "So what are you two doing here?" Eragon asked smiling at them both.

Arya, who sat next to Eragon, laced her fingers through his, which made Eragon smile all the more, said,"Well, as you may or may not know, I decided I was done being Queen of the Elves and elected a successor. I felt that my place was more here with you helping train new dragon riders than there squabbling endlessly ."

"And I," said Murtagh, who sat across from him,"Decided mine and Thorns talents would be better at use here than protecting villages, seeing as there are now many dragon riders but not so many trainers of dragon riders. Also.." he faltered. And by the look in his eyes Eragon could tell he was thinking of Nasuada, "I thought, perhaps, I could more easily get over my grief away from the place where all of it happened. You know?"

"Yes, " Eragon said, " I understand. So you are both staying here with me?"

"Yes." Arya said with finality. "We both believed our place to be here.

"Aye," Murtagh agreed noncommittally, his eyes still very far away. But then he smiled, the ghosts retreating to just the corners of his eyes. "Yes brother, we will help you as much or little as you need. Just say what you need.'

"Well, once you are all rested up and Saphira,Thorn and Firnen have returned I'll get you started."

They all rose and walked toward the door. Murtagh turned toward Eragon and grasped his forearm. "It's good to see you brother, and I promise to do better this time."

"I know you will."

They returned to the courtyard, together, Arya and Eragon holding hands. Above them their dragons circled in a fiercely beautiful dance.

 **Please Reveiw! Tell me what you think, this is one of my first fanfics so I would love some suggestions.**


End file.
